The basics for dry food are fairly simple. This article will include ingredients to avoid and what to look for in a decent quality food. This is an adjunct piece to “Food basics”.

The hard and fast rule is avoid foods that are available in the grocery store. They are the lowest grade and offer some of the worst examples of what NOT to feed your pet. Atta Boy comes to mind right off. There is no meat in the food at all. It’s all grain by-product and grease. The “meat” source is beef tallow. It’s cheap though, 50# for about $12 dollars. That 50# will feed a 50# dog for about 3 weeks. They will be eating 4-6 cups a day, and eliminating about 4 cups. It’s a waste of hard earned money and ends up creating a very unhealthy animal. The savings today are spent tomorrow in vet bills. There are grades of “better quality” in the grocery store. Purina is better than Kibbles and Bits, but not by much. And certainly not worth the considerably higher price. Here’s a list of ingredients to avoid.

ANY grain fractions, this includes flours, brans, glutens, proteins, and anything hydrolized. An example of an ingredient list:

It has 3 rice sources, for allergy dogs that is VERY bad, and one is bran. They use an unspecified fat source, poultry yes but what KIND of poultry?? Natural flavors(sprayed on flavor enhancers), oatmeal is not a good thing, very refined and heavy in sugar. Beet pulp is a stool “conditioner” and that means tootsie roll poops, not good for the colon. Tomato pomace is ground stalks and leaves of the plant, toxic. This is from Nutro’s Ultra adult formula.
This is another mid-grade food: